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Title: Man [ 24 y-o] Dies From Toothache, Couldn't Afford Meds
Source: ABC News
URL Source: http://abcnews.go.com/Health/insura ... es-toothache/story?id=14438171
Published: Sep 2, 2011
Author: Staff
Post Date: 2011-09-02 22:47:42 by Fred Mertz
Keywords: None
Views: 18452
Comments: 42

A 24-year-old Cincinnati father died from a tooth infection this week because he couldn't afford his medication, offering a sobering reminder of the importance of oral health and the number of people without access to dental or health care.

According to NBC affiliate WLWT, Kyle Willis' wisdom tooth started hurting two weeks ago. When dentists told him it needed to be pulled, he decided to forgo the procedure, because he was unemployed and had no health insurance.

When his face started swelling and his head began to ache, Willis went to the emergency room, where he received prescriptions for antibiotics and pain medications. Willis couldn't afford both, so he chose the pain medications.

The tooth infection spread, causing his brain to swell. He died Tuesday.

Calls to Willis' family were not immediately returned. University Hospital in Cincinnati, where Willis was admitted, did not comment, citing federal privacy laws.

"People don't realize that dental disease can cause serious illness," said Dr. Irvin Silverstein, a dentist at the University of California at San Diego. "The problems are not just cosmetic. Many people die from dental disease."

Willis' story is not unique. In 2007, 12-year-old Deamonte Driver also died when a tooth infection spread to his brain. The Maryland boy underwent two operations and six weeks of hospital care, totaling $250,000. Doctors said a routine $80 tooth extraction could have saved his life. His family was uninsured and had recently lost its Medicaid benefits, keeping Deamonte from having dental surgery.

"When people are unemployed or don't have insurance, where do they go? What do they do?" Silverstein said. "People end up dying, and these are the most treatable, preventable diseases in the world."

Getting access to dental care is particularly tough for low-income adults and children, and it's getting tougher as the economy worsens. In April, the Kaiser Family Foundation reported that 33 percent of people surveyed skipped dental care or dental checkups because they couldn't afford them. A 2003 report by the U.S. Surgeon General found that 108 million Americans had no dental insurance, nearly 2.5 times the number who had no health insurance.

Trips to the dentist aren't the only expenses hard-up Americans are skipping. An August report by the Commonwealth Fund found that 72 percent of people who lost their health insurance when they lost their jobs said they skipped needed health care or did not fill prescriptions because of cost.

"People want to believe there's a safety net that catches all of these people, and there isn't," said Dr. Glenn Stream, president-elect of the American Academy of Family Physicians. He noted that it is often young men who are the most likely to lack health coverage.

Dr. Jim Jirjis, director of general internal medicine at Vanderbilt University, said people, like Willis, without access to care often die of conditions that were much more common decades ago.

"He [Willis] might as well have been living in 1927," Jirjis said. "All of the advances we've made in medicine today and are proud of, for people who don't have coverage, you might as well never have developed those."

There are a number of free dental clinics in operation around the country, where dentists volunteer to provide care to those without health insurance. But even if Willis had access to a free dental clinic, Stream said he still may not have been able to get the care he needed for his infection. "The wait is often months at these clinics, and this young man died within two weeks of his problem," Stream said.

Silverstein operates three free dental clinics in the San Diego area. "We're overwhelmed right now," he said. "We can't take any new patients."


Poster Comment:

What is it about these people - bless his soul - from Ohio?

Post Comment   Private Reply   Ignore Thread  


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Begin Trace Mode for Comment # 16.

#1. To: Fred Mertz (#0)

Collins said she intends to write to President Obama and Congress to tell them what happened to Willis.

“We have got to make a difference with our health care,” she said. “With people losing their jobs, they’re having to make serious choices – do I eat, or do I get my medicine? It’s crazy. And this is America.”

http://news.cincinnati.com/article/AB/20110901/NEWS01/109020346/Bootsy-Collins- nephew-dies-after-tooth-infection

BorisY  posted on  2011-09-03   0:31:32 ET  Reply   Untrace   Trace   Private Reply  


#2. To: BorisY (#1)

“We have got to make a difference with our health care,” she said.

The taxpayer would've been better off paying for dental care than a trip to the local er and later, the ambulance ride to the hospital along with whatever care he got before he died. Certainly his six year old daughter would've been better off.

lucysmom  posted on  2011-09-03   0:47:42 ET  Reply   Untrace   Trace   Private Reply  


#3. To: lucysmom (#2)

The taxpayer would've been better off paying for dental care than a trip to the local er and later, the ambulance ride to the hospital along with whatever care he got before he died. Certainly his six year old daughter would've been better off.

Why?

If the guy was so stupid to deny his own pain what reasons exist to persuade American taxpayers to pay for anything?

buckeroo  posted on  2011-09-03   0:52:54 ET  Reply   Untrace   Trace   Private Reply  


#4. To: buckeroo (#3)

If the guy was so stupid to deny his own pain what reasons exist to persuade American taxpayers to pay for anything?

He didn't.

lucysmom  posted on  2011-09-03   0:56:22 ET  Reply   Untrace   Trace   Private Reply  


#5. To: lucysmom (#4)

He didn't deny his own pain? How is that?

buckeroo  posted on  2011-09-03   0:59:16 ET  Reply   Untrace   Trace   Private Reply  


#6. To: buckeroo (#5)

He didn't deny his own pain? How is that?

He went to the er and did get the pain medication, $3.00. He wasn't able to pay for the antibiotic, $26.00.

After the infection spread to his brain his thinking may have been affected.

lucysmom  posted on  2011-09-03   1:02:54 ET  Reply   Untrace   Trace   Private Reply  


#7. To: lucysmom (#6)

You are misdirected about modern health care. From the article:

According to NBC affiliate WLWT, Kyle Willis' wisdom tooth started hurting two weeks ago. When dentists told him it needed to be pulled, he decided to forgo the procedure, because he was unemployed and had no health insurance.

It was a 85 buck professional procedure. He could have used his good looks to have that same procedure performed.

buckeroo  posted on  2011-09-03   1:09:09 ET  Reply   Untrace   Trace   Private Reply  


#8. To: buckeroo (#7)

It was a 85 buck professional procedure. He could have used his good looks to have that same procedure performed.

If you say so.

lucysmom  posted on  2011-09-03   1:13:23 ET  Reply   Untrace   Trace   Private Reply  


#9. To: lucysmom (#8)

He could have asked his dentist for a contract of obligation about any procedure he agreed to have performed. He could have watered plants, clean the parking lot, sit on the highway advertising with a sign suggesting "BEST DENTIST UNDER THE SUN" or may other other venues.

And yeah, I SAY SO. His problem is not a state problem.

buckeroo  posted on  2011-09-03   1:20:19 ET  Reply   Untrace   Trace   Private Reply  


#12. To: buckeroo (#9)

He could have asked his dentist for a contract of obligation about any procedure he agreed to have performed. He could have watered plants, clean the parking lot, sit on the highway advertising with a sign suggesting "BEST DENTIST UNDER THE SUN" or may other other venues.

Or his dentist could have suggested that, but didn't.

And yeah, I SAY SO. His problem is not a state problem.

"Governments can err, Presidents do make mistakes, but the immortal Dante tells us that divine justice weighs the sins of the cold-blooded and the sins of the warm-hearted in different scales.

Better the occasional faults of a Government that lives in a spirit of charity than the consistent omissions of a Government frozen in the ice of its own indifference." FDR

lucysmom  posted on  2011-09-03   6:55:51 ET  Reply   Untrace   Trace   Private Reply  


#15. To: lucysmom (#12)

Or his dentist could have suggested that, but didn't.

Thank you for acknowledging that the "tooth ache" patient was too stupid to have recommended treatment. Inferring the issues are EVERYONE ELSE's problem shows how really STUPID this guy was and PROVES that his life wasn't worth a plug nickel anyway.

buckeroo  posted on  2011-09-03   9:04:42 ET  Reply   Untrace   Trace   Private Reply  


#16. To: buckeroo (#15)

Thank you for acknowledging that the "tooth ache" patient was too stupid to have recommended treatment. Inferring the issues are EVERYONE ELSE's problem shows how really STUPID this guy was and PROVES that his life wasn't worth a plug nickel anyway.

So you now get to decide from a brief description in an article whose life has value and whose life doesn't. And it seems to be based on it's value to a corporation.

mininggold  posted on  2011-09-03   10:04:36 ET  Reply   Untrace   Trace   Private Reply  


Replies to Comment # 16.

#18. To: mininggold (#16)

So you now get to decide from a brief description in an article whose life has value and whose life doesn't. And it seems to be based on it's value to a corporation.

Perhaps he has a seat on Sarah Palin's imagined death panel.

lucysmom  posted on  2011-09-03 11:32:10 ET  Reply   Untrace   Trace   Private Reply  


#20. To: mininggold (#16)

So you now get to decide from a brief description in an article whose life has value and whose life doesn't.

Not at all. The patient took his own life by not adhering to professional advice.

And it seems to be based on it's value to a corporation.

The patient was too stupid to be of any value to society anyway. Hasta la vista, baby.

buckeroo  posted on  2011-09-03 11:48:36 ET  Reply   Untrace   Trace   Private Reply  


End Trace Mode for Comment # 16.

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